Writing for Vaudeville eBook

But do not imagine because you are positive that you
have thought everything out beforehand, and now have
come to writing it down, that your job of thinking
is ended. Not at all; there are a few things
still to be thought out, while you are writing.

I. WHERE TO BEGIN

As in the monologue—­because your material
is made up of points—­you may begin nearly
anywhere to write your two-act. And like the
monologue, you need not have a labored formal introduction.

The Introduction

Still, your introduction is no less comprehensively
informing because it has not the air of formality.
If your characters by their appearance stamp themselves
for what they are, you may trust complete characterization—­as
you should in writing every form of stage material—­to
what each character does and says.

But in your very first line you should subtly tell
the audience, so there cannot possibly be any mistake,
what your subject is.

Why are those two men out there on the stage?

What is the reason for their attitude toward each
ther?

If they are quarreling, why are they quarreling?

If they are laughing, why are they laughing?

But don’t make the mistake of trying to tell
too much. To do that, would be to make your
introduction draggy. You must make the audience
think the characters are bright—­precisely
as the introduction of the monologue is designed to
make the audience think the monologist is bright.
Write your introduction in very short speeches.
Show the attitude of the characters clearly and plainly,
as the first speech of our two-act example shows the
characters are quarreling:

STRAIGHT

Say, whenever we go out together you always
got a kick coming.
What’s the matter with you?

Then get into your subject-theme quickly after you
have given the audience time to get acquainted and
settled, with the memory of the preceding act dimmed
in their minds by the giggle-points of your introduction.

The introduction of the two-act is designed to stamp
the characters as real characters, to establish their
relations to each other, to give the audience time
to settle down to the new “turn,” to make
them think the performers are “bright”
and to delay the first big laugh until the psychological
moment has come to spring the initial big point of
the subject theme, after the act has “got”
the audience.

II. THE DEVELOPMENT

It would seem needless to repeat what has already
been stated so plainly in the chapters on the monologue,
that no one can teach you how to write excruciatingly
funny points and gags, and that no one can give you
the power to originate laughter-compelling situations.
You must rise or fall by the force of your own ability.

There are, however, two suggestions that can be given
you for the production of a good two-act. One
is a “don’t,” and the other a “do.”
Don’t write your points in the form of questions
and answers. The days of the “Why did the
chicken cross the road?”—­“Because
she wanted to get on the other side” sort of
two-act, is past. Write all your points in conversational
style.